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Charity

Charity

:This article refers to the act of selfless giving, and organizations which facilitate selfless giving. For an article on the Greek mythological figures, see Charites. Charites]] Charity is a term that refers to giving. In Christian theology it is one of the three theological virtues, meaning loving kindness towards others; it is held to be the ultimate perfection of the human spirit, because it is said to both glorify and reflect the nature of God. In its most extreme form charity can be self-sacrificial. Charity is one conventional English translation of the Greek term agapē. The term is also applied to organizations such as a charitable trust, a charitable foundation, or a corporation set up entirely for charitable purposes. These are set up for specific causes, such as curing diseases; providing goods or services for people or areas that lack them; nature conservation; and many others. The act of giving money, goods or time to such a charitable trust or other worthy cause is described as charity or charitable giving. Charity is also used as a forename, intended to evoke the idea that one so named is a giving person. In some countries (including the UK, Canada, Australia, and the United States) a charitable organization needs, by law, to register with the government. This can reduce the possibilities of fraud and increase the opportunities for charities to receive tax breaks; it may also indirectly allow the government to influence the scope and agenda of charities (e.g. [http://www.webtribe.net/~animadversion/RSPCA%20put%20human%20needs.htm RSPCA Told to Put Human Needs Before Animal Pain]). According to a report of Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University published by the Giving USA Foundation, as of 2005, the number of charities is 1,010,395 charities in the USA. With the advent of the Internet a new form of charity has come up where the person wanting to donate can do so for free by clicking on a banner ad displayed on a particular website. The sponsors then give a specific amount to the website everytime a person clicks on their banner. The website then subsequently donates the money collected for charitable causes. A detailed list of such sites is available by going to the Click to donate sites section.

External links

- [http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?AID=3056 Charity in Judaism]
- [http://click4charity.blogspot.com/ Click 4 Charity] Category:Charities Category:Spirituality

Christian

:This article is about the religious people known as Christians; for the 1980s British music group, see The Christians.
For other uses of the term Christian, see Christian (disambiguation). As a noun, Christian is an appellation and moniker deriving from the appellation "Christ", which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. The first known usage of this term can be found in the New Testament of the Bible, in Acts 11:26. The term was first used to derogate those known or perceived to be disciples of Christ. As an adjective, the term may describe an object associated with Christianity. For many this also means to be a member or adherent of one of the organized religious denominations of Christianity. The term Christian means "belonging to Christ" and is derived from the Greek noun Χριστός Khristós which means "anointed one," which is itself a translation of the Hebrew word Moshiach (Hebrew: משיח, also written "Messiah"), (and in Arabic it is pronounced Maseeh مسيح). According to the New Testament, those who followed Jesus as his disciples were first called Christians by those who did not share their faith, in the city of Antioch. Xian or Xtian is another word used to describe Christians and is similar to using Xmas in place of Christmas; the X or Xt used as a contraction for "Christ" ("X" resembles the Greek letter Χ (Chi), the first letter of "Christ" in Greek (Χριστός [Christos]). The term "Christian" is used by various groups with diverse beliefs to describe themselves. Some groups, such as Born Again Christians and others, use a very strict definition of "Christian". They believe to be Christian one must agree and follow the doctrines set forth in the Bible alone. Many Christians are grouped into ecclesial communities called denominations which are separated by certain aspects of their respective beliefs and theologies. The liturgical denominations, including Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, Roman and Eastern Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Lutheranism, along with many constituent components of the reformed traditions of Presbyterianism, Methodism, Moravianism, et al., teach that the title Christian is honorificly bestowed upon those who have received the sacrament of Baptism, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Most of these groups advocate infant baptism, or paedobaptist (beside that of adult converts). Others who refer to themselves as Christian only require that one believes that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died, and that he was resurrected from the dead, to claim the term Christian. Yet other Christian denominations require a formal commitment to become a member such as baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, such as with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Baptism for the LDS church is done once an individual has achieved an age of accountability, held to be the age of eight years, or when an individual joins the church as a convert. Other denominations (The Church of Christ, International Churches of Christ, and the Independent Christian Churches) teach that the definition of a Christian is someone who has been baptized as a repenting adult “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”– (Matthew 28:19). For them, adult baptism is the transition from non-Christian to Christian. These varying definitions arise from different biblical interpretations and differences regarding the authority of scripture in context with tradition. A small but significant minority of ecclesiastical groups are often referred to as Christian by non-Christians, whose creeds consider Jesus to be theologically significant but not God. Movements along these lines include Jehovah's Witnesses.

History

Early times

Church is taken by some to refer to a single, universal community, although others contend that the doctrine of the universal church was not established until later. The doctrine of the universal, visible church was made explicit in the Apostles' Creed, while the less common Protestant notion of the universal, invisible church is not laid out explicitly until the Reformation. The universal church traditions generally espouse that the Church includes all who are baptized into her common faith, including the doctrines of the trinity, forgiveness of sins through the sacrificial action of Christ, and the resurrection of the body. These teachings are expressed in liturgy with the celebration of sacraments, visible signs of grace. They are passed down as the deposit of faith. Some minority traditions of Christianity have maintained that the word translated "church" in scripture most often properly refers to local bodies or assemblies. "Church" is a derivitive of the Late Greek word "κυριακον", meaning Lord's house, which in English became "church". The Koine word for church is εκκλησία (ecclesia). Before Christian appropriation of the term, it was used to describe purposeful gatherings, including the assemblies of many Greek city states. Christians of this stripe maintain that a centralizing impulse in the church, present from the early days of the church through the rise of Constantine, represented a departure from true Christianity. They therefore reject the authority of the Nicene Creed or the Apostles' Creed.

The First Millennium

Christian spirituality blossomed in the Roman Empire between A.D. 100 and 300 in spite of official efforts to suppress it. Sometime around A.D. 200, one leader, Tertullian, is quoted as saying, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed [of the Church]” to account for this phenomenon. In A.D. 313, the "Edict of Milan" ended official persecution, and under the Emperor Constantine, Christians acquired powerful political influence, the results of which are controversial to this day. Christians developed hierarchical structures to lead the visible Church over the course of many centuries. The leaders of their clergy From the early formation of the Church until the Great Schism in 1054 AD, virtually all Christians subsisted within one Church as one visible organization, led locally by bishops, and regionally by patriarchs. However, minor divisions occurred over differences in doctrine as early as the Council of Chalcedon, and continued through the progression of ecumenical councils.

Medieval times

In Medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church was at its peak of Apostolic flourishment and spirituality. Not only was the Church and its organizations extremely devoted to Christianity, piously spreading the word of God through missionaries and established monastaries in many countries but through its dominant spiritual influence that eventually rivalled the political power of most Monarchs for support of the population. The majority of people of this age devoted their lives to God and it showed by the donations of land, money, and possesions to the church. In time, this made the Pope an important figure in the life of the continent. This wealth often expressed itself in the building of beautiful cathedrals which showed their great devotion and adoration to God. The Church's monasteries were seats of learning and study which evolved into modern universities. They also provided the first hospitals for the care of the sick.

Modern times

The history of the Christian faith in modern times must be studied movement by movement, such is its diversity. In the West, the Protestant Reformation profoundly conditioned the relationship between church and state, thus bringing to Christianity the idea of self-interpretation and the denouncement of visible unity. Intellectual pressure from the Enlightenment led to a religious reaction in the North American colonies — called the Great Awakening — to which Protestant North American Christians owe much of their pattern of practice. Widespread Christian missions, founded by all segments of Christianity in response to the command of Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20, have created today's situation in which Christians are to be found in almost every part of the world. Some Christians devote themselves to active participation in prophetic communication and miraculous healing, as represented in the early church and the pre-Christ prophets. They are categorized as Charismatic or Pentecostal, but can be found in all denominations. Other movements within contemporary Christendom include the emergent church, fundamentalism, return to orthodoxy, messianic Judaism, liberalism, and the home church movement. Certain Christians attempt to obey only God and reject other authorities such as the church or state, believing this to be the true teaching of Jesus. They promote nonviolence and are known as Christian anarchists. Famous author Leo Tolstoy was a notable Christian anarchist, and wrote The Kingdom of God is Within You [http://www.kingdomnow.org/withinyou.html] in 1894 to explain his beliefs. The life of a Christian is still characterized by faith in the figure of Jesus as represented in the New Testament. Sacraments aside, the concept of grace is still uniquely Christian: the idea, or as some call it a mystery, that spiritual wholeness comes only as a result of a gift.

External links

- [http://www.christianopendirectory.com Christian Open Directory]
- [http://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-a-Christian.html What is a Christian?] (This refers only to the evangelical view of Christianity and may be interpreted by some as being anti-catholic.)
- [http://a4.nu/christian/index.htm Christian Resources - The real teachings of Jesus]
- [http://apostolic-anc.org/cgi-bin/getPageV3.php?id=2 More information about being a Christian]
- [http://www.geocities.com/hashanayobel/christwrit/varauthors.htm Christian authors]
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03712a.htm Christianity], as defined by the Roman Catholic Church
- [http://www.topchretien.com Christianity in French World] Category:Christianity ja:クリスチャン simple:Christian

Three theological virtues

The three Theological Virtues listed in the Bible are:
- faith (πίστις)
- hope (ἐλπίς)
- charity (ἀγάπη) They are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:13: :"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity" (from the King James version). The New King James version, the New American Standard Bible, and New International version translate the third, ἀγάπη, as "love", not "charity." See also:
- Seven Deadly Sins
- Four Cardinal Virtues
- Forty-nine charismatic virtues Category:Virtue

Agapē

:This article is about a type of love. For the English adjective, see the Wiktionary definition of agape Agapē (in Greek written αγάπη; pronounced /aga̍pe/ or /a̍gape/) is the Greek word for divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, thoughtful love. Greek philosophers at the time of Plato used it in a way that suggested a universal, as opposed to a personal, love; this could mean love of truth, or love of humanity. The term was used by the early Christians to refer to the special love for God and God's love for man, as well as the self-sacrificing love they believed all should have for each other. It is a prominent term in the works of C.S. Lewis. Agape were love-feasts among the primitive Christians in commemoration of the Last Supper, and in which they gave each other the kiss of peace as token of Christian brotherhood.

Christian love

Agape is Christian love, "charity" (1 Corinthians 13:1–8). Tertullian, in his 2nd century defense of Christians remarks how Christian love attracted pagan notice: "What marks us in the eyes of our enemies is our lovingkindness. 'Only look' they say, 'look how they love one another.'" (Apology 39). Saint Ignatius of Antioch and Saint Hippolytus of Rome (second century) use Eucharist and Agape as synonyms (cf.1 Corinthians 11); in Jude 12, the "love feasts" are most naturally understood to be the combined Agape–Eucharists. The Agape (in Didache, 70–110) is a Jewish meal (Chaburah) Christianized as in the "new meal" of Christ’s Kingdom and Love. Today the term Agape refers to the Easter Sunday’s Vespers (held either in the morning or the afternoon) which is also called the Second Resurrection Service. During this Service the Gospel reading relating to the first appearance of the Resurrected Christ to His disciples is read in many languages besides Greek.

Descriptions of Love in the New Testament

The New Testament provides a number of definitions and examples of love.

The greatest Commandment

Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (Gospel of John 13:34-35) He went on to say, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Gospel of Matthew 22:37-41)

Love for enemies

Jesus also said:

"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Thus, agape, as a form of love, is both unconditional and volitional, i.e., it is non-discriminating with no pre-conditions and is something that one decides to do.

The example of Paul and Silas

One of the best examples of Love comes from the Book of Acts, Chapter 16, verses 19-34:

The owners of a slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone. They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice."
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household." Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.

Paul's definition of Love

Paul described Love as follows: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (First Epistle to the Corinthians Chapter 13, verses 4-8a). It is very interesting to note that in the original Greek language text that these descriptions of agape are all in verbs, a matter of action, although most languages, such as English, will need to translate this using adjectives. To gain a better understanding of Paul's definition read all of 1 Corinthians 13.

John's definition of God

John equated God with Love in his first letter, (1st John): "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." (1 John 4:7-8 KJV)

Origin of the Agape

So far as the Jerusalem community was concerned, the common meal appears to have sprung out of the koinōnía or communion that characterized the first days of the Christian church (compare Act_1:14; Act_2:1 etc.). The religious meals familiar to Jews - the Passover being the great type - would make it natural In Jerusalem to give expression by means of table fellowship to the sense of brotherhood, and the community of goods practiced by the infant church (Act_2:44; Act_4:32) would readily take the particular form of a common table at which the wants of the poor were supplied out of the abundance of the rich (Act_6:1). The presence of the Agape in the Greek church of Corinth was no doubt due to the initiative of Paul, who would hand on the observances associated with the Lord's Supper just as he had received them from the earlier disciples; but participation in a social meal would commend itself very easily to men familiar with the common meals that formed a regular part of the procedure at meetings of those religious clubs and associations which were so numerous at that time throughout the Greek-Roman world.

Relation to the Eucharist

In the opinion of the great majority of scholars the Agape was a meal at which not only bread and wine but all kinds of viands were used, a meal which had the double purpose of satisfying hunger and thirst and giving expression to the sense of Christian brotherhood. At the end of this feast, bread and wine were taken according to the Lord's command, and after thanksgiving to God were eaten and drunk in remembrance of Christ and as a special means of communion with the Lord Himself and through Him with one another. The Agape was thus related to the Eucharist as Christ's last Passover to the Christian rite which He grafted upon it. It preceded and led up to the Eucharist, and was quite distinct from it. In opposition to this view it has been strongly urged by some modern critical scholars that in the apostolic age the Lord's Supper was not distinguished from the Agape, but that the Agape itself from beginning to end was the Lord's Supper which was held in memory of Jesus. It seems fatal to such an idea, however, that while Paul makes it quite evident that bread and wine were the only elements of the memorial rite instituted by Jesus (1Co_11:23-29), the abuses which had come to prevail at the social gatherings of the Corinthian church would have been impossible in the case of a meal consisting only of bread and wine (compare 1Co_11:21, 1Co_11:33) Moreover, unless the Eucharist in the apostolic age had been discriminated from the common meal, it would be difficult to explain how at a later period the two could be found diverging from each other so completely.

Separation from the Eucharist

In the Didache (circa 100 ad) there is no sign as yet of any separation. The direction that the second Eucharistic prayer should be offered “after being filled” (x.1) appears to imply that a regular meal had immediately preceded the observance of the sacrament. In the Ignatian Epistles (circa 110 ad) the Lord's Supper and the Agape are still found in combination (Ad Smyrn viii.2). It has sometimes been assumed that Pliny's letter to Trajan (circa 112 ad) proves that the separation had already taken place, for he speaks of two meetings of the Christians in Bithynia, one before the dawn at which they bound themselves by a “sacramentum” or oath to do no kind of crime, and another at a later hour when they partook of food of an ordinary and harmless character (Ep x.96). But as the word “sacramentum” cannot be taken here as necessarily or even probably referring to the Lord's Supper, the evidence of this passage is of little weight. When we come to Justin Martyr (circa 150 ad) we find that in his account of church worship he does not mention the Agape at all, but speaks of the Eucharist as following a service which consisted of the reading of Scripture, prayers and exhortation (Apol, lxvii); so that by his time the separation must have taken place. Tertullian (circa 200 ad) testifies to the continued existence of the Agape (Apol, 39), but shows clearly that in the church of the West the Eucharist was no longer associated with it (De Corona, 3). In the East the connection appears to have been longer maintained (see Bigg, Christian Platonists of Alexandria, 102ff), but by and by the severance became universal; and though the Agape continued for long to maintain itself as a social function of the church, it gradually passed out of existence or was preserved only as a feast of charity for the poor.

Reasons for the Separation

Various influences appear to have cooperated in this direction. Trajan's enforcement of the old law against clubs may have had something to do with it (compare Pliny as above), but a stronger influence probably came from the rise of a popular suspicion that the evening meals of the church were scenes of licentious revelry and even of crime. The actual abuses which already meet us in the apostolic age (1Co_11:20; Jud_1:12), and which would tend to multiply as the church grew in numbers and came into closer contact with the heathen world, might suggest the advisability of separating the two observances. But the strongest influence of all would come from the growth of the ceremonial and sacerdotal spirit by which Christ's simple institution was slowly turned into a mysterious priestly sacrifice. To Christ Himself it had seemed natural and fitting to institute the Supper at the close of a social meal. But when this memorial Supper had been transformed into a repetition of the sacrifice of Calvary by the action of the ministering priest, the ascetic idea became natural that the Eucharist ought to be received fasting, and that it would be sacrilegious to link it on to the observances of an ordinary social meal.

Sources

- The New Testament of the Bible, especially the Gospels.
- The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis
- The Greek New Testament, Aland, United Bible Societies
- A Textual Commentary on the Greek NT, Metzger
- The Apostolic Fathers, Lightfoot, Harmer, Holmes

Charitable trust

A charitable trust (or charity) is a trust organized to serve private or public charitable purposes.

Legal distinctions

A legal definition of a charitable purpose includes the relief of poverty, the advancement of education, the advancement of religion, or other purposes considered beneficial to the community. Because of the benefits provided by charitable trusts, they are subject to certain benefits under the law. For example, transfers of property to a charitable trust are usually exempt from the rule against perpetuities, which would otherwise operate to void a transfer made after a certain period. Furthermore, charitable trusts come under the doctrine of cy pres, which holds that if the charity designated in the trust ceases to exist or otherwise becomes unable to carry out the purpose of the trust, then the trust property can be transferred to another charity with a similar purpose.

Oversight

Some charities are referred to as foundations. Charitable trusts are usually non-profit organisations or registered with the government of a country. The charity is then required to report its activities (especially financial ones) to the government, usually on an annual basis. There is normally an obligation to register a non-profitable charitable organisation, as the public is entitled to some oversight of organisations that wish to act for the public good. In the United States, because of the principle of separation of church and state, churches and other religious organisations are often exempt from this legal requirement, although they are often overseen by a church hierarchy. In the United States, there are complex tax law differences between private and public charities. The use of the word "foundation" in an organization's name does not impart any legal benefit, generally speaking. In many countries the charity sector is fast growing. Charities often take over services that used to be provided by the state, such as health, old age and unemployment, as the state finds it increasingly difficult to fulfill its traditional social responsibility.

Charities in different countries

Australia

In Australia, non-profit organisations and charities are registered with the Australian Taxation Office as deductible gift recipients (DGR).

Canada

Canada has over 75,000 registered charities, of which more than 40% are places or worship such as churches and mosques. Other registered charities include institutions such as universities and libraries. About 23% of registered charities exist to help the disadvantaged. Annual giving in Canada is over $90 billion CDN, if one puts a dollar figure on volunteer time. The most charitable province is Newfoundland, which has the highest rate of individual donations per capita. Canadians give, on average, $239 dollars per year to charity. About one third of Canadians volunteer annually and 5% of corporations make donations. In Canada, approximately two-thirds of the funding for charitable foundations comes from the government. The level of government funding has recently caused controversy as cutbacks have led to problems with such programmes as food banks. Another controversy is the denial of charitable status to environmental and political groups. There have also been calls for greater regulation of the charitable sector. Recent years have seen a new breed of charities that pour most of their donations into marketing. These groups grow quickly and attract many donors but a far smaller fraction of each donation goes to help the needy.
- Charities in Canada are registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

United Kingdom

There were over 200,000 registered charities in the UK at the start of 2005.
- The 180,000+ charities in England and Wales are registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The Charity Commission has an online register listing them all. Many charities are also limited liability companies registered with Companies House. Using this latter model limits the liability of the Trustees and is the recomended model in the charity owns property, or employs people.
- The 20,000 or so charities in the Scotland are registered with the Inland Revenue. However, in 2006 a bill will be passed, registering charities with The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).
- The 5,000 or so charities in Northern Ireland are registered with the Inland Revenue. There is no central register of these charities.

United States

In the United States of America, the Attorney General of each state maintains a registry of charitable organizations. Donations to charities in the United States are deductible for income tax purposes if the organization has exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, usually under non-profit organization sec. 501(c)(3) of the tax code. Any organization meeting the rules of that section can be classified a charity in the US, including trusts, foundations, and corporations. US tax law also allows trusts that do not qualify as exempt under 501(c)(3) to get significant tax advantages if they are set up with specific provisions.([http://www.irs.gov/irm/part4/ch52s05.html]). These are called Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRT) and Charitable Lead Trusts (CLT). Charitable Remainder Trusts are so named because the remainder of the assets in the trust passes to a designated charity at the death of the grantor or one or more beneficiaries. A current tax deduction is given for the portion that is determined to be the expected amount the charity will receive in the future, which is called the remainder. During the lifetime of the primary beneficiary, a percentage of assets or a fixed dollar amount are paid to the primary beneficiary. There are two primary types of CRTs: Charitable Remainder Unitrusts (CRUT), where a percentage of assets is received by the lifetime beneficiary, and Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts (CRAT), where a fixed dollar amount is received every year. Charities or other trustees are also allowed to set up pooled trusts that operate similarly to individual CRTs except that they receive contributions from multiple donors. This allows each donor similar benefits as an individual CRT without the expense of creating the trust themselves.[http://cobrands.public.findlaw.com/estate_planning/nolo/ency/3045416C-EDC6-48F2-A310DAF212E2361D.html] The Charitable Lead Trust is essentially the reverse of a Charitable Remainder Trust ([http://www.michiganestateplan.com/CM/ResourceLinks/Glossary.asp]). In this form, the lifetime payments go to the charity and the remainder returns to the donor or to the donor's estate or other beneficiaries. Thus the two types of CLTs are CLUTs and CLATs, which are analogous to CRUTs and CRATs. Similarly named and often confused with CRUTs and CRATs are Grantor Retained Unitrusts (GRUT) and Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRAT) ([http://www.irs.gov/irb/2005-11_IRB/ar10.html]). The difference is that GRUTs and GRATs do not involve charitable beneficiaries and therefore are not given the charitable deduction.

List of charities

See: List of charities

External links

Charity regulating bodies

- [http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ Charity Commission for England and Wales]
- [http://www.oscr.org.uk/ The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR)]
- [http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/tax/charities/menu-e.html Canadian Revenue Agency]
- [http://www.ato.gov.au/nonprofit/ Australian Taxation Office]

News, information and services in the charity sector

- [http://www.patplanner.com/ Charitable Remainder Trust] alternative tax deferral strategies with a private annuity trust.

International

- [http://www.cafonline.org/ Charities Aid Foundation]

United Kingdom

- [http://www.charityfacts.org/index.html Charity Facts]
- [http://www.charitychoice.co.uk/ Charity Choice]
- [http://www.philanthropycapital.org/ New Philanthropy Capital]
- [http://www.nfpsynergy.net/ nfpSynergy]
- [http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/ The Institute of Fundraising]
- [http://www.intelligentgiving.info/ Intelligent Giving]
- [http://society.guardian.co.uk/voluntary/ Society Guardian Voluntary Sector]
- [http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk National Council for Voluntary Organisations]
- [http://society.guardian.co.uk/voluntary/ Society Guardian]

Evaluations of charities

United States

- [http://www.charitynavigator.org The Charity Navigator]
- [http://www.charitywatch.org The American Institute for Philanthropy]
- [http://www.guidestar.org/ Guide Star] Category:Organizations
- Category:Wills and trusts

Charitable foundation

A Foundation is a type of philanthropic organization set up by either individuals or institutions as a legal entity (usually either a corporation or a trust) with the purpose of distributing grants to support causes in line with the goals of the foundation. In civil law jurisdictions, the foundation finds its source in institutions of medieval times when a patron would establish a foundation to endow a monastery or other religious institution in perpetuity. The foundation has a distinct patrimony independent of its founder and if it is not a moral person it is considered to be a social trust. There are several types of foundations, including family foundations, corporate foundations and community foundations. Community foundations are public charities established in communities throughout the world (there are about 700 in the U.S.) to support community efforts. Frequently, these community foundations have both funds to be used at the discretion of the board of directors and other, specialized funds established by individuals, families, businesses, and nonprofit groups at these foundations into which they contribute a variety of assets (cash and stock being among the most popular). These assets are invested and grow over time. While there are many different kinds of funds that can be established, among the most popular are donor-advised funds. These enable those who established them to contribute assets into the funds at any time, and then they can recommend that grants be made from the fund to qualified nonprofit groups in any amount and at any time in the future--anywhere in the world. Community foundations also work with people to help them implement charitable giving as part of their estate plans--e.g., through a bequest.

External links

- [http://www.foundationsource.com Foundation Source, Inc.]
- [http://www.foundationcenter.org The Foundation Center], a Clearinghouse of Information on the approximately 25,000 U.S. Foundations
- [http://www.cof.org Council on Foundations]
- [http://www.congotimes.com/news/ubbhtml/Forum5/HTML/000113.html U.S. Corporate Foundations]
- [http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/dchmf/haip/srch/sec/SrchLogin-e;jsessionid=Df7tSpakuOVlhKDYfQS1iuj5HEs1B25j7ejTswN6rYl4R5ZYQ8kg!-108333734!wls-d07-p00-01.ec.rc.gc.ca!7101!-1 Canada Revenue Agency - List of Canadian Registered Charities]
- ja:財団法人

Corporation

A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a natural person. Civil law systems may refer to corporations as "moral persons;" they may also go by the name "AS" (anonymous society) or something similar, depending on language (see below). In colloquial usage, "corporation" usually refers to a commercial entity set up in accordance with a governmental framework. Churches (mainly in US, but not so much in other countries, where Churches have a different status), interest groups (both can form as not-for-profit corporations or can exist as voluntary associations), cities and townships (often chartered as public corporations), among others, may also have historically lengthy corporate identities.

Legal status

The law typically views a corporation as a fictional person, a legal person, or a moral person (as opposed to a natural person); United States law recognises this as corporate personhood. Under such a doctrine (obviously a legal fiction), a corporation enjoys many of the rights and obligations of individual citizens, such as the ability to own property, sign binding contracts, pay taxes, have certain constitutional rights, and otherwise participate in society. (Note that corporations do not possess all the rights appertaining to individuals: in most jurisdictions, for example, a corporation cannot vote.) In common law countries, the classic statement of this principle is found in Lennard's Carrying Co Ltd v Asiatic Petroleum Co Ltd [1915], where Lord Haldane said: :"My Lords, a corporation is an abstraction. It has no mind of its own any more than it has a body of its own; its active and directing will must consequently be sought in the person of somebody who is really the directing mind and will of the corporation, the very ego and centre of the personality of the corporation." The most salient features of incorporation include: #Limited Liability. Unlike in a partnership, stockholders of a corporation hold no liability for the corporation's debts and obligations: see leading case in common law, Salomon v. Salomon & Co.. As a result their "limited" potential losses cannot exceed the amount which they paid for the stock. Not only does this allow corporations to engage in risky enterprises, but limited liability also forms the basis for trading in corporate stock. Without the limitation on the amount that an investor can lose, the time and effort required to determine whether the stock could wipe the investor out would render the stock market very illiquid (as one can observe in the very illiquid market for partnership interests). A lender can, however, require a personal guarantee on a loan to a corporation, thus introducing personal liability. #Perpetual Lifetime. The assets and structure of the corporation exist beyond the lifetime of any of its shareholders, officers or directors. This allows for stability of capital, which thus becomes available for investment in projects of a larger size and over a longer term than if the corporate assets remained subject to dissolution and distribution. This feature also had great importance in the medieval period, when land donated to the Church (a corporation) would not generate the feudal fees that a lord could claim upon a landholder's death. In this regard, see Statute of Mortmain. #Profit Maximization. In Anglo-American jurisdictions, business corporations are generally required to serve the best interests of the shareholders, a rule that courts have generally interpreted to mean the maximization of share value, and thus profits. Corporate directors are prohibited by corporate law from sacrificing profits to serve some other interest. Originally this included such areas as environmental protection, or the improvement of the welfare of the community. For example, when Henry Ford cut dividends and reduced car prices in order to increase the number of people who could afford to buy his cars, his brother-in-law, Mr. Dodge, a shareholder, sued him for having harmed profitability: Dodge v. Ford Motor Company, 170 N.W 688 (Mich.S.C. 1919). Mr. Dodge succeeded and went on to form his own car company with the proceeds of the suit. However, modern law by statutes and court decisions holds that a corporation does have an implied authority to make charitable contributions to society.

Ownership and control

Humans and other legal entities (such as trusts and other corporations) can hold shares. When no stockholders exist, a corporation may exist as a "non-stock corporation", a "membership corporation", or similar — this second type of corporation counts as a not-for-profit corporation. In either category, the corporation comprises a collective of individuals with a distinct legal status and with special privileges not vouchsafed to ordinary unincorporated businesses, to voluntary associations, or to groups of individuals. Typically, a board of directors governs a corporation on the stockholders' behalf. The board has a fiduciary duty to look after the interests of the corporation. The corporate officers such as the CEO, president, treasurer, and other titled officers are chosen by the board to manage the affairs of the corporation. Corporations can also be controlled (in part) by creditors such as banks. In return for lending money to the corporation, creditors can demand a control interest analogous to that of a shareholder, including one or more seats on the board of directors. Creditors are not said to "own" the corporation as shareholders do, but can outweigh the shareholders in practice, especially if the corporation is experiencing financial difficulties and cannot survive without credit. Shareholders in a corporation are said to have a "residual interest." Should the corporation end its existence, the shareholders are the last to receive its assets, following creditors and others with interests in the corporation. This can make investment in a corporation risky; however, the risk is outweighed by the corporation's limited liability, which ensures that the shareholder will only be liable for the amount they invested.

Formation

Historically, corporations were created by special charter of state governments. Today, corporations are usually registered with a state, and become regulated by the laws enacted by that state. Registration is the main prerequisite to the corporation's assumption of limited liability. As part of this registration, it must designate the principal address of the corporation (where to contact it in the event of legal process), and often an agent or other legal representative of the corporation. Generally, a corporation files articles of incorporation with the government, laying out the general nature of the corporation, the amount of stock it is authorized to issue, and the names and addresses of directors. Once the articles are approved, the corporation's directors meet to create bylaws that govern the internal functions of the corporation, such as meeting procedures and officer positions. The law of the state in which a corporation operates will regulate most of its internal activities, as well as its finances. If a corporation operates outside its home state, it is often required to register with other governments as a foreign corporation, and is almost always subject to laws of its host state pertaining to employment, crimes, contracts, civil actions, and the like.

Naming

Corporations generally have a distinct name. Historically, corporations were named after their membership: for instance, "The President and Fellows of Harvard College." Nowadays, corporations in most jurisdictions have a distinct name that does not need to make reference to their membership. In Canada, this possibility is taken to its logical extreme: many smaller Canadian corporations have no names at all, merely numbers (e.g., "Ontario 123-4567 Limited"). In most countries, corporate names include the term "Corporation", or an abbreviation that denotes the corporate status of the entity. See Types of corporations for a full list. These terms, known as words of limitation, obviously vary by jurisdiction and language. Their use puts all persons on constructive notice that they have to deal with an entity whose liability remains limited, in the sense that it does not reach back to the persons who constitute the entity; one can only collect from whatever assets the entity still controls at the time one obtains a judgment against it. Certain jurisdictions do not allow the use of the word "company" alone to denote corporate status, since the word "company" may refer to a partnership or to a sole proprietorship, or even, archaically, to a group of not necessarily related people (for example, those staying in a tavern).

Unresolved issues

The nature of the corporation continues to evolve, both through existing corporations pushing new ideas and structures, and governments regulating them in response to new situations. A current question is that of diffused responsibility: for example, if the corporation is found liable for a death, then how should the blame and punishment for this be allocated across the shareholders, directors, management and staff of the corporation? The present law diffuses this responsibility. One may think that the owners of the business - the shareholders - should be ultimately responsible for such circumstances, but the modern corporation may have many millions of small-scale shareholders who know nothing about its business activities. Worse still, traders - especially hedge funds - may rapidly turn over their partial ownership of a corporation many times a day. One suggestion is that the directors should be passed the burden of moral and legal responsibility as part of their job of representing the shareholders. This is currently an active area of debate.

Origins

Etymology

The word "corporation" derives from the Latin corpus (body), representing a "body of people"; that is, a group of people authorized to act as an individual (Oxford English Dictionary). The word universitas also used to refer to a group of people but now refers specifically to a group of scholars (see University). In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, the term corporation was also used for the local government body in charge of a borough. This style was replaced in most cases with the term council in the United Kingdom in 1973, and in the Republic of Ireland in 2001. The sole exception is the Corporation of London which retains the title.

Pre-modern corporations

Corporations have been present in some forms as far back as Ancient Rome. Although devoid of some of the core characteristics by which corporations are known today, they nonetheless were enterprises, sanctioned by the state, with a form of shareholders who invested money for a specific purpose. With the collapse of the Roman Empire, the rise of Christianity and the influx of Germanic tribes, the Roman conception of the corporation merged with other views. Germanic tribes, for example, maintained that a group entity in and of itself could have a separate identity from that of its members. These influences came together in the body of canon law built around the conception of the church as corporate structure in the Middle Ages. Different theories of the church as corporate body were favored by different individuals but all agreed on one key component: that the church was more than just its members and could maintain an existence perpetually, regardless of the death of any individual member. This, together with discussion as to the relationship between the head of a corporation (such as the Pope) and its members, contributed not only to the development of modern corporations and corporate theory but also set the stage for many ideas that would come to fruition during the enlightenment. Kenneth Pomeranz, an economic historian, argues that the need to perform pseudo-governmental operations (such as the waging of war) accounts for the development of this economic structure in Europe but not in China or in the Middle East. Older corporate entities gained incorporation as "the person/people of xx". This reflected the people who made up the "body" and also emphasised their legal identity. The law classifies a corporation either as a corporation sole (one person) or as a corporation aggregate (any other number). Examples include (the link gives the legal name; the nickname appears in brackets with the nature of the corporation)
- The Governor and Company of the Bank of England (Bank of England — corporation aggregate)
- The Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge University — corporation aggregate)
- The President and Fellows of Harvard College (Harvard College — corporation aggregate)
- Her Majesty the Queen in Right of New Zealand (New Zealand Government — corporation sole)
- The Archbishop of Canterbury (corporation sole)
- The Dean, Chapter and Students of the Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford of the Foundation of King Henry VIII (Christ Church, Oxford — corporation aggregate) Using strict definitions, universities and colleges count as corporations since they merely comprise groups of people.

Development of modern commercial corporations

college, dating from 7 November 1623, for the amount of 2,400 florins]] Early corporations of the commercial sort were formed under frameworks set up by governments of states to undertake tasks which appeared too risky or too expensive for individuals or governments to embark upon. The alleged oldest commercial corporation in the world, the Stora Kopparberg mining community in Falun, Sweden, reportedly obtained a charter from King Magnus Eriksson in 1347. Many European nations chartered corporations to lead colonial ventures, such as the Dutch East India Company, and these corporations came to play a large part in the history of corporate colonialism. In the United States, government chartering began to fall out of vogue in the mid-1800s. Corporate law at the time was very restrictive and very closely regulated by the states. Forming a corporation usually required an act of legislature. Investors generally had to be given an equal say in corporate governance, and the corporation's activities were tightly restricted to its express purposes. Many private firms in the 19th century avoided the corporate model for these reasons (Andrew Carnegie formed his steel operation as a limited partnership, and John D. Rockefeller set up Standard Oil as a trust). Eventually, state governments began to realize the economic value of providing more permissive corporate laws. New Jersey was the first state to adopt an "enabling" corporate law, with the goal of attracting more business to the state. Delaware followed, and soon became known as the most corporation-friendly state in the country; even today, most major public corporations are set up under Delaware law. The 20th century saw a proliferation of enabling law across the world, which helped to drive economic booms in many countries before and after World War I. After World War II, and especially starting in the 1980s, many countries with large state-owned corporations moved toward privatization, the selling of publicly-owned services and enterprises to private, normally corporate, ownership. Deregulation - reducing the public-interest regulation of corporate activity - often accompanied privatization as part of an ideologically laissez-faire policy. Another major postwar shift was toward conglomerates, in which large corporations purchased smaller corporations to expand their industrial base. Japanese firms developed a horizontal conglomeration model, the keiretsu, which was later duplicated in other countries as well. While corporate efficiency (and profitability) skyrocketed, small shareholder control was diminished and directors of corporations assumed greater control over business, contributing in part to the hostile takeover movement of the 1980s and the accounting scandals that brought down Enron and WorldCom following the turn of the century. More recent corporate developments include downsizing, contracting-out or out-sourcing, off-shoring and scoping down activities to core business, as information technology, global trade regimes, and cheap fossil fuels enable corporations to reduce labour costs, transportation costs and transaction costs, and thereby maximize profits. For a history of corporations that is “pro-corporate”, see John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, The Company: a Short History of a Revolutionary Idea (New York: Modern Library, 2003). For a history of corporations that is “critical”, see Joel Bakan, The Corporation. The pathological pursuit of profit and power (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2004).

Types of corporations

For-profit and non-profit

Main article: non-profit organization In modern economic systems, the corporate conventions of governance commonly appear in a wide variety of business and non-profit activities. Though the laws governing these creatures of statute often differ, the courts often interpret provisions of the law that apply to profit-making enterprises in the same manner (or in a similar manner) when applying principles to non-profit organizations — as the underlying structures of these two types of entity often resemble each other.

Closely-held and public

The institution most often referenced when the word "corporation" is used, as in the title of the movie The Corporation, is a public or publicly traded corporation, the shares of which are traded on a public market (e.g., the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq) designed specifically for the buying and selling of shares of stock of corporations by and to the general public. Most of the largest businesses in the world are publicly traded corporations. However, the majority of corporations are said to be closely held, privately held or close corporations, meaning that no ready market exists for the trading of ownership interests. Many such corporations are owned and managed by a small group of businesspeople or companies, although the size of such a corporation can be as vast as the largest public corporations. The affairs of publicly traded and closely held corporations are similar in many respects. The main difference in most countries is that publicly traded corporations have an additional burden of complying with securities laws, which (especially in the U.S.) grant further rights to stockholders to protect them from fraud or unfairness in connection with the sale and purchase of stock. The publicly traded corporation must usually follow much more stringent disclosure requirements, and sometimes additional procedural obligations in connection with major transactions (e.g. mergers) or events (e.g. elections of directors).

Multinational corporations

Following on the success of the corporate model at a national level, many corporations have become transnational or multinational corporations: growing beyond national boundaries to attain sometimes remarkable positions of power and influence in the process of globalising. The typical "transnational" or "multinational" may fit into a web of overlapping ownerships and directorships, with multiple branches and lines in different regions, many such sub-groupings comprising corporations in their own right. Growth by expansion may favour national or regional branches; growth by acquisition or merger can result in a plethora of groupings scattered around and/or spanning the globe, with structures and names which do not always make clear the structures of ownership and interaction. In the spread of corporations across multiple continents, the importance of corporate culture has grown as a unifying factor and a counterweight to local national sensibilities and cultural awareness.

National features

There are various types of corporations throughout the world.

United States

In the United States, several corporate forms exist; the name of "corporation" generally applies to a business, run for profit, to which one of the states of the United States has granted a corporate charter. American corporations often charter as a Delaware Corporation in Delaware, which charges no tax on activities outside the state and has courts experienced in commercial law. Corporations set up for privacy or asset protection often charter in Nevada, which allows setting them up with no record of who owns them. The federal government of the United States usually does not grant corporate charters, except for some special instances such as Amtrak and Freddie Mac and banks and credit unions which opt not to receive charters from their home states. Historically, most U.S. states issued charters for fixed lengths of time (for example, a manufacturing corporation might receive a charter good for 40 years), and only by an act of the legislature. In theory, a limited charter forced corporations to remain accountable to government (that is, to the community) for the special privileges granted to them. Investors protested that it actually led to unhealthy amounts of political payoffs and graft. Most states now charter unlimited-term corporations for a small fee, and possibly for a yearly tax. Legally, corporations are accorded some corporate personhood, i.e. Constitutional rights similar to those held by persons. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on this question in the 1886 case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. Many countries around the world now have corporate laws based upon state laws from the United States. For example, corporations in Japan are organized under a variant of the corporate law of Illinois, and corporations in Saudi Arabia follow corporate laws copied from New York. The oldest corporation in the United States, and the oldest in North America, is the President and Fellows of Harvard College (also known as the Harvard Corporation), chartered in 1650.

Canada

In Canada both the federal government and the provinces have corporate statutes, and thus a corporation may have a provincial or a federal charter. Many older corporations in Canada stem from Acts of Parliament passed before the introduction of general corporation law. The oldest corporation in Canada, and second oldest in North America, is the Hudson's Bay Company, chartered in 1670. Federally recognized corporations are regulated by the Canada Business Corporations Act

German-speaking countries

Germany, Austria and Switzerland recognize two forms of corporation: the Aktiengesellschaft (AG), analogous to public corporations in the English-speaking world, and the Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH), similar to (and an inspiration for) the modern limited liability company.

Corporate taxation

In many countries, including the United States and United Kingdom, corporate profits are taxed at a corporate tax rate, and dividends paid to shareholders are taxed at a separate rate. Such a system is sometimes referred to as "double taxation," because any profits distributed to shareholders will eventually be taxed twice. One solution to this (as in the case of UK tax system) is for the recipient of the dividend to be entitled to a tax credit which addresses the fact that the profits represented by the dividend have already been taxed. The company profit being passed on is therefore effectively only taxed at the rate of tax paid by the eventual recipient of the dividend. Where a double taxation system exists, the additional tax burden is often an incentive for smaller businesses to organize in the form of a partnership, limited liability company, or other type of entity that is not separately taxed. Such entities are often called "pass-through entities." In the United States, business corporations owe taxes according to two basic categories. A "C corporation" must pay corporate taxes, while "S corporations" pay no corporate taxes but instead pass profits and losses directly to their owners (the stockholders) who declare such profits and losses as part of their personal taxable income. An S corporation must generally have no more than 100 stockholders, who must be natural persons (not other corporations or entities), must reside in the United States, and must consent to the classification; moreover, the S corporation can only issue a single class of stock. As a result of these restrictions, all publicly traded corporations and many larger close corporations have C corporation status. Certain kinds of investment companies are also exempt from corporate income taxes, provided they distribute almost all of their income to shareholders in the form of dividends or capital gains distributions.

Other commercial entities

Several other forms of business entity exist under the laws of various countries. These include:
- Partnership
- Limited partnership (LP)
- Limited liability partnership (LLP)
- Limited liability company (LLC)
- Sole proprietorship

Quotes

- Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned, they therefore do as they like. —Lord Thurlow
- An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. —"Corporation" as defined by Ambrose Bierce in The Devil's Dictionary
- The opinion of the Court, after mature deliberation, is that this [a corporate charter] is a contract, the obligation of which cannot be impaired without violating the Constitution of the United States. —Chief Justice John Marshall, Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819).

External links

- [http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Corporations.html Corporations] — article by Robert Hessen
- [http://www.company-formation-glossary.co.uk Company Formation Glossary]
- [http://www.ukcorporator.co.uk/guidance/G59.php Standard UK Company Formation Configurations]
- [http://www.gangsofamerica.com/ Gangs of America by Ted Nace] — A free book on historical and legal bases of Corporations Category:Business law Category:Corporations law Category:Legal entities Category:Types of companies ko:주식회사 ja:株式会社

Conservation

Conservation may refer to the following:
- Conservation ethic in relation to preserving ecosystems
- Conservationist
- Conservation movement
- Conservation ecology
- Conservation law of physics
- Conservation of energy
- Conservation of mass
- Conservation (genetics) in genetics
- conservation (botany) in botanical nomenclature
- Conservation (psychology) in psychology
- Prolonging the material integrity of cultural and artistic objects
- Art conservation
- Architectural conservation or immovable object conservation
- Archaeological site conservation
- The conservation of cultural heritage or historic preservation

Given name

A given name specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name. The given name may be single, or several names may be given (the latter are known as middle names). In the latter case, one of them, generally the first, is commonly used while the others are mostly used for official records (Order of names is no longer as important). A child's given name or names are usually assigned around the time of birth. In most jurisdictions, the name at birth is a matter of public record, inscribed on the birth certificate or equivalent. In some jurisdictions, mainly civil law jurisdictions such as France or Quebec, the functionary whose job it is to record acts of birth may act to prevent parents from giving the child a name that may cause him or her harm, such as a bizarre or obscene one (in France, by referring the case to a local judge). In many European countries, "given name" is synonymous with first name, forename, and Christian name (see usage), but these terms do not apply internationally. For example, the Hungarians traditionally have given names placed after the family names, as do all East Asians and the Vietnamese. The practice of placing given name last in these Asian countries and Hungary has been considered by some a manifestation of the importance of familial collective over individualism. The etymology of given names includes:
- Aspiring personal traits (external and internal), for example, the Japanese name Miko means child of beauty.
- Objects, for example rock (Peter), spear
- Literary characters, for example Wendy
- Physical characteristics, for example Calvin (means the bald king)
- Another name, for example Pauline (especially to change the sex of the name)
- Surnames, for example Ralph
- Places, for example Brittany
- Day of the week of birth, for example Kofi Annan Kofi = born on Friday etc
- Combination of the above, for example Ashley (means by the ash wood) There are also names of unknown or disputed etymology, for example Keisha. However, in many cultures, given names are reused, especially to commemorate the dead (namesake), resulting in a virtually limited repertoire of names that sometimes vary by orthography. And those namesakes, in turn, were often named after Biblical characters, except for the name Jesus, which is almost always considered taboo or sacrilegous when used as a given name in English-speaking regions. In the Spanish-speaking world, however, "Jesús" is a very popular name, without any negative implications. On the other hand, Mary is almost universally popular among Christians, especially among Roman Catholics. Most common given names in English (and many other European languages) can be grouped into broad categories based on their origin:
- Hebrew names are almost always from the Old Testament. Some have elements meaning God, especially 'el'. Examples: Joel, Michael, Rachel, Joshua, Joseph, David, Jeremy, Rebecca, Adam, Elizabeth, James, Anne, Mary, Sarah, Daniel, John, Susan. There is also a handful of popular Aramaic names e.g. Thomas, Martha.
- Germanic names often are warlike in nature, or have roots meaning glory. The -bert element common in many such names comes from -beraht, which means bright. Examples: Albert, Norbert, Robert, Alfred, Adelaide, Edward.
- French forms of Germanic names. Since the Norman conquest, many English given names of Germanic origin are used in their French forms. Examples: Richard, William, Charles.
- Celtic names are sometimes anglicised versions of Celtic forms, but the original form may also be used. Examples: Alan, Ashley, Brian, Brigid, Bríd or Bride, Mòrag, Niamh, Conor, Guinevere, Fionnghuala, Donovan, Malcolm, Eoghan, Ian, Eoin, Owen, Rowan, Kaylyn, Bronwen, Gwendolen, Seán. These names often have origins in Celtic words, as Celtic versions of the names of internationally known Christian saints, as names of Celtic mythological figures, or simply as long-standing names whose ultimate etymology is unclear.
- Greek and Latin names can be derived from the Greco-Roman gods, or may have other meanings. Many are derived from the New Testament and early Christian traditions. Greek examples: Stephen (from Stephanos), Alexander (Alexandros), Andrew (Andreas), Peter (Petros), George (Geôrgios), Christopher (Christophoros), Melissa, Margaret, Catherine. Latin examples: Laura, Victoria, Mark (Marcus), Diana, Paul (Paulus).
- Recent names come from English vocabulary words. These are usually feminine names, derived from flowers, birds, gemstones and aspiring traits. Examples: Lily, Mavis, Amber, Serenity.
- Recent coinages and variants are created by parents who want to give their child a new version of an old name. Names which are currently in fashion tend to be varied the most. Also, many masculine names have had feminine versions created, especially by adding the suffix -a. Pet forms are informal forms of longer names, usually made by adding -y. Shortenings reduce the size of a long name, for example: Vicky, Pauline, Bob, Tony, Mike. Names may be diminutized, especially in child hood nicknames. In English Robert may be shortened to Bob and then changed to the diminutive Bobby or the name Randall shortened to Randy. In German the names Johannes and Margarethe are diminutized to Hänsel and Gretel. Other languages provide other names: for example, the name Belle comes from French, so the above should not be thought of as the only sources of names. Frequently, a given name occurs in different language varieties. For example, the English name Susan from the Old Testament also occurs in its original Hebrew version, Susannah, and in its French version, Suzanne. Slavic names are often of a peaceful character, the compounds being derived from word roots meaning to protect, to love, peace, to praise (gods), to give, and so on. (For a more complete list see List of Slavic given names.) The Chinese and Korean given names are virtually all unique, because meaningful Hanzi and Hanja characters can be combined extensively. However, some less educated parents recycle popular given names as well. The names of famous and successful persons are also reused occasionally. Nevertheless, most Chinese and Korean parents invest a tremendous amount contemplating the names of their newborns before their birth, often with comprehensive dictionaries or with religious guides, formal or informal. Sometimes, especially in traditional families, paternal grandparents are the name-givers. In more Westernised Asian locations like Singapore and Hong Kong, many Chinese also take on an English given name in addition to their Chinese given name. Many Japanese women's names, such as Yoko Ono's, used to end in ko (子), which means "(girl-)child" in Japanese. This fell out of favor in the 1980s, and has remained outdated since. As a result, while the vast majority of Japanese women born before 1980 have names ending in ko, it is relatively rare for the younger generation. Most names are either masculine or feminine, but unisex names can be either. Often, one gender is predominant.

Popularity distribution of given names

The popularity (frequency) distribution of given names typically follows a power law distribution. This frequency distribution commonly occurs among collections of symbols instantiated and used in a similar way, for example newspapers ranked by circulation, movies ranked by box office receipts, Internet web sites ranked by visits. Since about 1800 in England and Wales and in the U.S., the popularity distribution of given names has been shifting so that the most popular names are losing popularity. For example, in England and Wales, the most popular female and male names given to babies born in 1800 were Mary and John, with 24% of female babies and 22% of male babies receiving those names, respectively.[http://www.galbithink.org/names.htm] In contrast, the corresponding statistics for in England and Wales in 1994 were Emily and James, with 3% and 4% of names, respectively. Better understanding this change might provide insights into symbolic economics increasingly important with the rapid development of information and communication technologies.

Influence of pop culture

Popular culture appears to have an influence on naming trends, at least in the United States and United Kingdom. Celebrities and public figures who are well perceived influence the popularity of names. For example, in 2004, the names "Keira" and "Kiera" respectively became the 52nd and 94th most popular girls' names in the UK, perhaps due to the popularity of British actress Keira Knightley[http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=184]. There is some risk to naming people after celebrities and sports figures, as careers can crash in an instant. Even characters from fiction can influence naming. After the name Kayla was used for a character on an American soap opera, the name's popularity exploded. The negative connotations of fictional characters with the names "Ebenezer" and "Tess" probably hurt the use of those names. A few names invented by authors, "Vanessa" being the most popular example, were established or at least spread by being used in fiction. Most parents who choose a name which has recently received a great deal of publicity in the popular culture are probably not naming their child "after" the celebrity or fictional character in the sense of honoring that person. It is more likely that they simply have decided that the name sounds like the "different but not too different" alternative many modern parents are looking for. This is shown by the fact that some names that have obviously been influenced by the media are actually the names of horrific characters. For example, the girls' name "Samara" tripled in use in the United States after it was featured as the name of such a character in the film "The Ring."

Twin names

In some cultures, twins may be given distinctive pairs of names. There are a number of web sites dedicated to the naming of twins, including Western [http://multiples.about.com/b/a/168124.htm] and Hindu[http://www.hindustanlink.com/parenting/twins-boys.html] lists. The United States Social Security Administration publishes lists of popular twin names in the US. Twin names are sometimes similar in sound, for example boy/girl twins named Christian and Christina or twin girls named Sudha and Subha. The names may have a thematic similarity such as Jesse and James (named for the American outlaw) or Matthew and Mark (named for the first two books of the New Testament in the Bible).

Usage

The term Given name is rarely used in the United Kingdom; Forename or Christian name predominate, with the former now used almost universally on official documentation.

Name changing

People may change their names for a variety of reasons. In many countries there is a mandatory or voluntary official procedure. Popular reasons for changing one's name include:
- too common or uncommon.
- too hard to spell or say.
- too long.
- too "foreign-sounding".
- one feels that a nickname is more "oneself" than the given name.
- is unisex.
- is not unisex.
- conflicts with one's spiritual belief (popular in Asian countries).
- escaping from the past.

External links

- [http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames Social Security online - Baby Names] - United States Social Security Administration provides a website where people can search the popularity of names and naming trends in the United States.
- [http://www.galbithink.org/names/agnames.htm Given Name Frequency Project] - Analysis of long-term trends in given names. Includes downloadable datasets of names for persons interested in studying given name trends.
- [http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/names_files.html U.S. Census Bureau: Distribution of Names Files] Large ranked list of male and female given names in addition to last names.
- [http://www.behindthename.com Behind The Name] Name etymologies
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United Kingdom

:For other meanings of the terms "United Kingdom" and "UK" , see United Kingdom (disambiguation) and UK (disambiguation). :For an explanation of terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom or the UK) is a country located off the north-western coast of continental Europe, surrounded by the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is composed of four constituent parts: three constituent countries—England, Scotland, and Wales—on the island of Great Britain, and the province of Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland forms the United Kingdom's principal international land border, although there is a nominal frontier with France in the middle of the Channel Tunnel. The UK has several overseas territories and the Crown dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands come under the UK's sovereignty. The UK also has close relationships with the fifteen other Commonwealth Realms, as they all share the same head of state. The UK is also one of the largest member states of the European Union and a founding partner of both the UN and NATO.
Terminology

- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: The official name for the sovereign state
- United Kingdom: an abbreviation of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Britain: an informal term that sometimes means United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means Great Britain
- British: an informal term that sometimes means from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and sometimes means from Great Britain
- Great Britain (as a geographical term): the largest island of the British Isles
- Great Britain (as a political term): England + Wales + Scotland
- British Isles (as a geographical term): Great Britain + Ireland + many smaller surrounding islands. This term is disputed, please see below.
- Ireland (as a geographical term): the second largest island of the British Isles
- Ireland (as a political term): an abbreviation of the Republic of Ireland, a sovereign state on the island of Ireland
- Northern Ireland: a political region of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Ulster (as a geographical term): Often used to refer to Northern Ireland. It is derived from the Irish Language term 'Ulad.' It was one of the ancient Irish provinces (the others were Connaught, Leinster and Munster.). Although it is normally used to refer to Northern Ireland, Ulster also (traditionally) includes Counties Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal, which lie in the Republic of Ireland. The term Ulster is often favoured by the Protestant community.
History
Protestant Today's state is the latest of several unions formed over the last 1000 years. Scotland and England have existed as separate unified entities since the 10th century. Wales, under English control since the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, became part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Act 1535. With the Act of Union 1707, the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland, having shared the same monarch since 1603, agreed to a permanent union as the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Act of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, which had been gradually brought under English control between 1169 and 1691, to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was formed in 1922, after bitter fighting which echoes down to the current political strife, the Anglo-Irish Treaty partitioned Ireland into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, with the latter remaining part of the United Kingdom. As provided for in the treaty, Northern Ireland, which consists of six of the nine counties of the Irish province of Ulster, immediately opted out of the Free State and to remain in the UK. The nomenclature of the UK was changed in 1927 to recognise the departure of most of Ireland, with the current name being adopted. 1927 The United Kingdom, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing Western world ideas of property, liberty, capitalism and parliamentary democracy - to say nothing of its part in advancing world literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one quarter of the Earth's surface and encompassed a third of its population. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted from the effects of World War I and World War II. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous nation. The UK has been a member of the European Union since 1973. Its attitude towards further integration is conservative, and there is significant Euroscepticism in UK politics. It has not chosen to adopt the Euro, owing to internal political considerations and the government's judgement of the prevailing economic conditions.
Government and politics
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, with executive power exercised on behalf of the Queen by the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers who head departments. The cabinet, including the Prime Minister, and other ministers collectively make up Her Majesty's Government. These ministers are drawn from and are responsible to Parliament, the legislative body, which is traditionally considered to be "supreme" (that is, able to legislate on any matter and not bound by decisions of its predecessors). The UK is one of the few countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution, relying instead on customs and separate pieces of constitutional

Charity

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Christian

History

Early times

The First Millennium

Medieval times

Modern times

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Three theological virtues

Agapē

Christian love

Descriptions of Love in the New Testament

The greatest Commandment

Love for enemies

The example of Paul and Silas

Paul's definition of Love

John's definition of God

Origin of the Agape

Relation to the Eucharist

Separation from the Eucharist

Reasons for the Separation

Sources

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Charities in different countries

Australia

Canada

United Kingdom

United States

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News, information and services in the charity sector

International

United Kingdom

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United States

Charitable foundation

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Further Reading

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Corporation

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Given name

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